In the prior art there exist examples of paper receiving apparatus which assemble and finish a stapled set of sheets by means which in a preliminary stage assembles the trailing ends of sheets on a shelf, while the leading ends of the sheets are otherwise supported.
Examples of such prior art are seen in Canon U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,340, granted Jan. 31, 1995 and Lawrence U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,695, granted Jul. 22, 1997.
In the Canon structure, the set of sheets is supported at its trailing end on a fixed shelf from which the assembled set is pushed to a receiver.
In the Lawrence structure, the assembled set of sheets is gripped and moved to a finishing station after accumulation of the trailing ends of the sets on a movable shelf.
The pending application, Ser. No. 09/078,202, filed May 14, 1998 is co-owned herewith and discloses a stacker with which are associated a binding station and a stapling station. In that application there is also disclosed a shelf which receives the trailing ends of sheets being accumulated for processing at either of the binding or stapling stations, wherein the shelf is allowed to pivot downwardly to drop the trailing ends of the accumulated set of sheets.